When using imaging, tomography or spectroscopy techniques such as magnetic resonance (MR), it is very useful and sometimes necessary to inject a liquid or a colloidal suspension into a tissue, an organ, an animal or a human before, during or after an experiment or an examination. The delay between the preparation and the infusion of the liquid or the colloidal suspension into a tissue, an organ, an animal or a human located inside the imaging, tomography or spectroscopy apparatus is a critical issue when the liquid or the colloidal suspension has short-lasting physical or chemical properties.
A first approach to infuse a liquid or a colloidal suspension with short-lasting physical or chemical properties is to collect the liquid or the colloidal suspension in a syringe and to quickly administrate it into the biological object. This is the way proposed for instance by J. H. Ardenkjaer-Larsen et al. to infuse hyperpolarized liquids for MR investigations (see WO 02/37132). WO 99/35508 very superficially discusses an idea of applying pressure to carry hyperpolarized material from a container to a patient undergoing MR examination. Practically such a procedure is difficult to implement because it requires at least three conditions, namely: a) a high-speed transfer of the material from the preparation apparatus to the imaging, tomography or spectroscopy apparatus (due to the short-lasting physical or chemical properties of the material), b) a relatively slow infusion speed (in order to avoid damage in the biological object), and c) an absence of gas in the infusion line (which could harm the biological object under examination). It should also be noted that if the biological object is placed in a location with limited access such as in a narrow bore MR magnet, a direct infusion with a syringe is hardly possible. WO 99/35508 does not discuss and consequently does not offer a solution to this complex procedure.
An objective of the present invention is to meet the above cited three conditions.